1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the use of plant fiber in personal care compositions and to methods of using those compositions. More particularly, the invention relates to the use of tapioca fiber in personal care applications for cleansing, exfoliating, irritation reduction, suspending, thickening, and aesthetics and foam property enhancement.
2. Background Information
The term “tapioca” is commonly used to refer to both the tapioca (or cassava) plant and the granular starch that is extracted from the tapioca plant. The tapioca plant is a member of the Euphorbiaceae or spurge family, manihot genus, and is grown in countries with tropical climates (e.g., Central and South America, Africa, the West Indies, India and Thailand). The cassava plant has several synonyms, including cassara manioc, manihot, brazilian arrowroot, cassaya starch, and janipha manihot.
Tapioca fiber is a by-product of tapioca starch production. It is usually tan colored solids or particulates with relatively uniform size and shape. It can be used in a wide variety of personal care applications such as to provide deep cleansing and skin exfoliation while reducing skin irritation. Tapioca fiber can also improve formulation aesthetics on skin, provide thickening and suspending properties in aqueous systems, and enhance foam properties in foaming products.
Use of tapioca fiber has been described in other areas such as in adhesives for corrugating. It is also known that tapioca fiber can be used as a dietary fiber supplement in food, with processes having been developed to provide high total dietary fiber therefrom. Use of tapioca flour in cosmetics has been at least briefly mentioned in the art, particularly for use in dusting and facial powders.
Improvement in the performance of most personal care products might be made in a variety of ways, including increasing efficacy, adding functionality, reducing cost, or removing unwanted negative properties. The means by which a formulator may accomplish these improvements vary, but one such means is through novel functional ingredients. It has now been discovered that plant fiber, including tapioca fiber, is one such novel ingredient useful in improving personal care formulations.